WYOO shoplifting (poss controversial)

We discussed this in work today for some reason! One person seems to be of the opinion that if you only steal small things from big shops/super markets then its okay because ‘they wont miss it’
I personally think stealing is stealing no matter how big or small the item is!
Not to mention if they are caught they face having a criminal record!
WYO?

I used to work in a large department store and we would get stolen from constantly (multiple times per day usually high value items too) so it was something we talked about alot.

As a baseline I don't think it's ok to steal anything at all, I can afford to feed myself and my children so for me theft of any kind would be solely for greed and therefore is absolutely unacceptable.

However I have a slightly different view of theft in general I can understand theft for "need". That is people who steal to feed themselves or thier families or weirdly people who steal to buy booze/drugs. I'm sure I'll get shot down for that and to be clear I don't think stealing for drug money is acceptable, however as far as the individual involved is concerned they "need" to steal to continue thier existence (if that makes sense) so at least there's a viable reason for the theft.

The theft that used to really piss me off is petty theft. We used to get very weird petty theft, people would steal the filters out of the display model of £500 vacuum cleaners or the grounds lid off a £150 coffee machine. (These things went missing so often it was absolutely theft and not general loss) This would annoy me so much as you would only steal it a. Because you can or b. Because you have the machine and these are the bits that break/need replacing. If you can afford a £500 vacuum wtf are you stealing a £10 filter? As for the coffee machine the part would have been replaced for free just by phoning the manufacturer so it was a case of pure laze.

Like pps, I can understand shoplifting through necessity & can imagine that the people who have to do it would much rather be able to pay.

I don't understand doing it for any other reason & don't agree that it makes a difference who you're stealing from - the loss will get passed on to someone, somewhere - most likely the consumer or other company's (including small businesses) insurance premiums.

I accidentally (yes honestly) stole a pint of milk from the co-op last weekend & felt terrible about it. LG had been carrying it (weird obsession with carrying milk) & it wasn't until we were half way home that I noticed she still had it & I hadn't paid for it. 🙈

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